The present invention relates generally to electronic controllers and, more particularly, to appliance electronic controllers where various parameters, particularly parameters which relate to timing functions, can readily be programmed to accommodate machines which have different usages. In addition, the invention relates to a programmable/reconfigurable fuzzy logic controller included within an electronic controller having a functionality which is easily reconfigured according to the type of machine being controlled.
The subject invention may be implemented as a part of an appliance electronic control system which is disclosed in concurrently-filed application Ser. No. 07/968,991, filed Oct. 30, 1992, by Thomas R. Payne and Steven A. Rice, entitled "Reconfigurable Appliance Electronic Control System with Automatic Model Determination, Internally Restructurable Control and Flexible Programmable Test Modes", now U.S. Pat. No. 5,306,995, the entire disclosure of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
That disclosure is directed to a microcontroller-based electronic control system which is able to handle a variety of different appliances which are members of a family of commercial laundry products. In a particular embodiment disclosed therein, a single appliance electronic control system is applicable to each of a two-speed clothes washer, a one-speed clothes washer, an electronic dryer and a gas dryer.
Current laundry appliances allow only limited selection of laundry parameters, and commercial machines typically offer only temperature selections. This situation would be entirely acceptable if all machines received similar usage. However, such is not the case, and it would be desirable to provide a laundry machine in which all laundry parameters are variable to enable the owners of such machines, particularly in commercial laundry establishments, to customize the operation of the machines to best fit the needs of the users, or to offer users a wide variety of cycles without purchasing unique machines.
Such variability can be obtained in machines with electromechanical controllers by altering the hardware responsible for the timing functions. However, in order to offer a large number of sets of laundry parameters, an unreasonably large number of mechanical timing devices would have to be produced.
As further background, a recent innovation in the field of controllers, particularly appliance controllers, is the use of what is known as fuzzy logic to make decisions and provide measurement and/or control outputs based on one or more inputs of an analog nature in accordance with a set of inferencing rules. Fuzzy logic can make "best guess" decisions in circumstances where input data is incomplete or inconsistent. Fuzzy logic controllers, as heretofore implemented, are uniquely designed for a given application.